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April 11, 2006
How do you order the names on your co-authored papers?
Liran Einav and Leeat Yariv have an interesting paper in the Journal of Economic Perspectives (Winter 2006). The title is, "What's in a Surname? The Effects of Surname Initials on Academic Success." Here's a tease...
We suspect the "alphabetical discrimination" reported in this paper is linked to the norm in the economics profession prescribing alphabetical ordering of credits on co-authored publications. As a test, we replicate our analysis for faculty in the top 35 U.S. psychology departments, for which co-authorships are not normatively ordered alphabetically. We find no relationship between alphabetical placement and tenure status in psychology.
Personally, I always go alphabetically. If it truly is a team effort (and I only co-author when it truly is a team effort), then order should make no difference. It makes no difference to me, at least. Apparently, this is not a universal opinion. I haven't had time to thoroughly critique it, but at first glance, it is an interesting paper.
Posted by William Polley at April 11, 2006 05:36 PM
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Comments
I've thought if you are late in the aphabet, it might confer an advantage. If you are listed second, i.e. alphabetically, the presumption is equal work, even when it may not be. But if you are listed first, then the presumption is that the contributions weren't equal. So those low in the alphabet have no presumptive states in which they are thought to be the major contributor, unless specifically indentified as such.*
*Author order determined by a coin toss.
Posted by: Mark Thoma at April 11, 2006 06:13 PM
That's a good point. A couple of things might come into play. If it truly is a social norm among economists to use alphabetical ordering, then at the department level, it shouldn't impact tenure. However, it may matter further up the line if you are being compared to candidates in other disciplines where other orderings are the norm. Einav and Yariv also mention the effect of citation indexes or the use of "et al." in citations as working against others further down the list. That could potentially matter if it means that your name doesn't enter the nomenclature of the discipline (i.e. if you are the "et al.")
Part of it seems plausible, but I'm going to need to sit down with it to be convinced.
But I still would go with alphabetical order with my co-authors.
Posted by: William Polley at April 11, 2006 09:51 PM